Monday, January 25, 2016

Happy Monday Parents and Carers!

The boys and I welcomed back Mr. Zachary as he was away last week. We were all very excited to see him, and the day continued at a fast pace!


We began the day by showing Zachary some of our new favourite dance routines on Go Noodle. The boys demonstrated great body and muscle awareness, proprioceptive and bilateral movements, gross motor skills, motor planning, and auditory processing.

Mr. Zachary was our teacher today and is shown here choosing friends to assist him with the calendar. 

After morning circle we had a nice long discussion about emotions and feelings. Next, we had to  make a pizza, following the proper sequence, whilst being timed. This was a fun math and fine motor activity to test our timing skills.

After recess the boys and I needed to regulate ourselves and chat about emotions, feelings, and friendship. We read a great story, acted our some emotions, used real life examples, and then showed our friends how we were feeling and why.

In gym today we played a fun new team game called "Egg Toss" (a play on Chuck the Chicken). We had to separate our friends in two different groups. One team had to run around the 'chicken coop" while the other had to chase down the 'red egg' and play over-under. As the one team was playing over-under, the other team had to count how many times they got around the 'chicken coop' before they were down! It was a lot of fun and there were so many great acts of sportsmanship and team work!

In social skills today we talked about healthy foods, snacks we could make, and then sang a fun Raffi song called "Apples and Bananas". Then, we paired up with a friend and got to create a cool invention using skewers, grapes, celery, wow butter, and peppercorns. Some of us made cars, boats, a fishing rod, and even a caterpillar!

In the sensory gym we worked on our hand-eye coordination, teamwork, sportsmanship, motor planning, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, math and rhyming skills, and balance and coordination.

During Minute to Win It we worked on our concentration and focus, hand-eye coordination, proprioception skills, bilateral movements, fine and gross motor skills, math skills, time management, sportsmanship skills, and how to work through our emotions.

Have a lovely evening and see you tomorrow gentlemen!

Mr. Jacob : )

Friday, January 22, 2016

Happy International Day Parents and Carers!

I would like to thank those of you who were able to attend and come check out our decorations, display, and delicious egg rolls!


We started the day by giving Evan a couple birthday gifts for his big 7th birthday! Then naturally, the boys had to play with the new toys he got: sticky hands!

Here they are trying to catch pom pom balls with the sticky hands (something similar to a frog eating a meal haha).

The birthday boy was our teacher today, and chose Avery to go over the calendar work.

We also wrote down things that come to mind when we hear about, or think about, China. Some of the answers were: egg rolls, Great Wall, chop sticks, and dragons.

Then we had a big birthday celebration with balloons, Oreo cupcakes, music, and singing for Mr. Evan.

Here is Evan handing out cupcakes to all of his friends!

Our "China Day" pose? Haha

Evan's first time trying out the chopsticks! 

We had such a fun and energetic day today. The boys did so much work, and had lots of fun learning about China. We discussed how big the country was, where it is located, the animals found there, time zone difference, currency (yuan), our name sin Chinese Mandarin, food, population size, the Great Wall of China, and Jackie Chan (amongst other things)! 

Have a great weekend and it was so nice seeing some of you parents today! See you on Monday!

Mr. Jacob : )

Thursday, January 21, 2016

Happy Thursday Parents and Carers!

The boys had a very eventful and busy Thursday. They had two different sessions with their friends from St. Judes, and also prepared and made egg rolls for International Day.

Evan got right down to his sensory circuit while Eric and Avery practiced some cool new dance videos on Go Noodle.

Mr. Eric was our teacher today and is watching his pupil Evan complete the days of the week. We also went over our feelings and emotions, time, past, present, & future, months, weeks, & days, and the weather.

After morning circle we went into the cafeteria and looked at all of the ingredients needed in order to make and prepare home made egg rolls! A fun life skills activity involving fine motor skills, bilateral movement, hand-eye coordination, focus, and teamwork.

Cutting up our green onions.

Grating our carrots.

Preparing the egg roll wrappers.

Preparing the egg roll fillings.

Here are the boys very attentive during St. Judes' art session with Mrs. Kerr.

We also had a blast during St. Judes' gym session playing "Chicken, Ham, & Cheese".

The boys are now obsessed with our new dance videos on Go Noodle! We made it to level 10 and had a blast working on our gross motor skills, auditory processing skills, proprioceptive and bilateral movements, balance and coordination, and motor planning.

In the sensory gym we worked on our hand-eye coordination, teamwork, sportsmanship, motor planning, fine and gross motor skills, proprioception skills, vestibular and bilateral movements, math and rhyming skills, and balance and coordination.

At the very end of the day we participated in a fun and challenging Team Building Game. The boys had to create a structure using straws, play-doh, and elastic bands, that would hold up four marshmallows. The marshmallows couldn't touch the desk or play-doh, and the marshmallows could not be punctured by the straws. Also, a new rule for today, the marshmallow had to also be resting on something. A great game for problem solving, abstract thinking, teamwork, sportsmanship, fine motor skills, oral and two way communication, and math skills.

Have a great evening gentlemen and I will see you tomorrow for International Day and Evan's birthday!

Mr. Jacob : )